Friday, June 22, 2007

I like it when all the books in the Random Books From My Library share a common colour scheme, especially if that scheme is brown and red (matching the rest of my blog). This happens far more often than seems statistically probable – and I’m considering adding only red and brown books in future (with the occasional splash of yellow).

I don’t like it when the number of comments on a recent post is 13, or any number ending in –9. (For the love of Pete, somebody please say something and make it a nice round multiple of 10!)

I like it when new commenters who have blogs either leave a link or (a) enable access to their Blogger profile and (b) have a link to their blog on it so I can click over and read my way through their home page.

I don’t like it when I visit a new blog and find that the home page either (a) contains only one or two posts, or (b) contains brief snippets of each post, forcing me to click individually if I want to read more. (And Trudy, I’m not talking about you, because I already know you well enough to click on each post – but if I didn’t know you already, the "Read More" links would be enough to send me packing. Word to the wise.)

I like memes. Their intrinsic interest varies, of course, but I like watching them explode, meander, or mosey their way around the blogosphere – especially when I manage to get in on the ground floor, as I did when Veronica Mitchell created that Best TV Characters Ever meme last fall.

I don’t like these new carnivals where everybody posts about their skirt or their school cafeteria or their love of danger in support of a book or website. For one thing, I never find out about them until they’re already over, and for another thing, I don’t really get why we’re supposed to be doing it. To win a prize? To get more traffic? Out of the goodness of our hearts?

I like my Google Reader Shared Items (see sidebar). There’s a high turnover on it, because every time I find a post that makes go tingly all over, I just click "Share" and then gaze at it fondly for the rest of the day, clicking over from time to time to stroke it gently and say "Hello, my pretty!"

I still like Bloglines too, though. And my blogroll. So Google Reader is more of an addition to my bloggy lifestyle than a substitution.

I like getting comments.

I don’t like it when myfavouritebloggers go on hiatus because they’re overwhelmed by the pressure to comment. So here’s what I say. Come by, say hi. But don’t stress if you go a week or two between comments – and put your own writing first.

Jen - Yes she is, praise be. But she's taken breaks before and I did. not. like. it. As for Mad, I've resorted now to visiting her ghost town of a blog and leaving harassing comments, just to vent my feelings.

It looks like we like, and don't like, some of the same things. This is my first time leaving a comment for you - that's one of the things I like too - but I've liked your blog ever since I started reading it.

I have a weird number one. I do not like it if the volume on the TV is an odd number. Weird, I know. I finally shared this in mixed company and realized my father, brother, and sister share this same odd affliction. My mother rolled her eyes at us all and turned the TV down to 15.

I like comments too. I don't yet feel overwhelmed to comment, although I keep my google reader comfortably at 12.

I love the Pottery Barn catalogs when the library is all books with red spines or something. Unfortunately, mine is just books I've read and liked (or disliked) with no color coordination at all.

I LOVE comments! I hate when you have to click "read more" or when someone's link for comments isn't just simply "comments", it's something obtuse like, "you go girl". I want it to be very clear where to comment!

I don't know how to do the shared items thing though, I have to go through and create individual links to my favorite posts which causes me to be lazy and leave the same things up there forever. Teach me, wise one.

I am a narrow-field blogger. I write when I have time and I'm feeling inspired, which is generally a couple times per week, but could stretch to a couple weeks between posts.

As for the blog reading - I subscribe to about 40 blogs via google reader. Of these, a third are the near daily posters, another third post a few times/week, and the others are typically a week or more between posts. About 5 of them are "mommy blogs", including yours.

However, I have a pretty busy life, or at least I try to, and I don't always have time to read through posts... so many of the posts that come through my google reader get skimmed and sent on their way, or possibly starred and tucked aside until they're deleted a week later, still mostly unread.

That's how I try to keep up, without becoming overwhelmed. I can't IMAGINE having time to read blogs for 4 hours straight every night... That would be highly overwhelming to me. Burnout seems inevitable.

Thankyou for this post. It made me smile, just like I knew it would. I like the thing about the shared posts, and the very you-ness of it all. The numbers thing is great. I kinda like 13 myself - It's the rebel in me I think - I insist 13 is a LUCKY number, and it seems to work.

If you're reading in Google Reader, first you set up the Shared Items box on your sidebar (there's a link at the top navbar on the Google Reader page, I think, for getting one of these and picking your colour scheme, and then you add the code to your blog using the Layout feature). Once you've got that set up, it's really easy to use - at the bottom of very post you view in Google Reader, the word "Share" appears. When you click on it, it swiches over to "Unshare" - and voila! There it is on your blog.

Beck - If you go over to Google Reader, they have a thingy you can click and it will import all your subscriptions from Bloglines. You can still use Bloglines (I still do), but all your subscriptions will be there on Google Reader in one fell swoop.

Because that would have been 23 and this is 24. I don't like odd numbers, especially ones that end in 3s, and I will comment multiple times, even on my own blog, to avoid 13. Except this last month when I set a challenge to myself to Leave It Alone Freak, LOL.

I'm not superstitious about 13 at all. Just it's an odd number.

LOL!

I have been waffling in my mind about the blasts, but have noticed that even though the skirt one offered a locket, I did not play.

I like that web site sk*rt.

But feel uncomfortable using my blog to promote a for profit venture that way? (I include the question mark to display how my voice rose in slight discomfort and uncertainty at the end of that not-yet-committed to thought.)

It's arbitrary because I do like memes, and happily participate in my own roundtable as well as in any from BlogRhet.

But even prior to the promotional blog blasts sweeping through, I had dropped out of most of the carnivals...almost all of which are contests.

I guess in addition to being a Dance Snob (per Nigel Lythgoe) I am also a post snob of some variety.

Hey Sleep Nazi - I responded to your comment on behalf of the Sleep Nazis over at my little blog. I hope you weren't offended. I hate when I read stuff that people are ranting about and I think, hey - that's me! My rant really wasn't about sleep. And is more about some really uptight in-laws who are fun haters. Who I'm pretty sure think we are the scurge of the earth. :-I I hope you'll come see my reply.

i also hate it when i use Dave's computer and forget to change the blogger signin. how embarrasing. that's me who's trolling through Mad's ghost town, and is now wondering if i've kicked your comments to an unlikeable number.

me, i like 7, and 13, and 24 and 42, though my comments almost never get as high as 42. i don't like the 9s either, just because i then sit staring hopefully at the screen just willing someone else to come along. :)

Oh, how I miss Mad. I don't read the other two, or I'd probably miss them too. But the lack of Mad is like seeing a good neighbor's home empty and dark...someone you are used to having over for dinner and talking with over the fence line every day, just not being there.

And the blog blasts get me too. If I'm being honest, I usually skip those posts altogether. But I do love a good meme, even though those make the rounds too. They are just more fun.

I really miss Mad too. And Deb. But at least she posts sporadically when on hiatus.

The blog blasts are about free stuff! But they're fluff posts, so I put my on my review page and put a link in a *real* post. That way people can read it if they like.

I also am not a big fan of the "read more" click. I'm not sure why though. Maybe because it takes more effort on my part. If it's a blogger I know, I'll definitely click over. But if it's a new read, it's not happening!

I also love to read memes. I'm horrible about procrastinating when I get tagged though.

I like it when I find new bloggers I enjoy visiting. I don't like it when my children are yelling and I have to leave new-found bloggers to break it up. De-lurking to say "I enjoy your blog." (and sorry for messing up your nice round "30"th post):)

I can't say I ever thought of the number of comments before. I have a lot of ticks I guess that is not one of them.

I have no idea about the carnivals, I guess I don't get around much. I have forced myself to stick to the 10 or so blogs I read and not go much further. It is just too tempting and I don't seem to have a lot of self control when I blog.

I love the Google Reader Shared Items, I have never noticed it before. Thanks for the tip. I don't use Bloglines, but I love using Google Reader to be alerted I find it almost like cheating after manually checking the blogs one by one for so long.

I do miss Mad and others, but I understand what she was saying. It is hard to know when to stop. It kind of takes over, especially the reading. It is like when you are reading a good book and stay up until 3am, except you can do it every night when you are blogging.

Hach. What a relief. Like Christine I don't pay much attention to sidebars nowadays. I read almost everything in bloglines, and only come over to comment. (By the way, I really dislike the "read more"-buttons and I really like the bloggers who make their whole posts available to feed readers. I know that I miss out much in sidebars and design.)

the carnivals leave me all wa-huh?-ish as well. as for comment pressure being an issue for me, well, yes, and, um, heh.

hi.

you know you're my friend and you know that's why I am such a crap commenter here; it's because I believe you are aware of the (extreme) level of my devotion to you. I know you know I'm nodding my head with pretty much every word you put to page. 'cause you're a genius and all.

When my blogging went from being something I did for myself to something I did for myself AND community I was struck by how much extra work it was: keep up with my own writting, keep up with blog housekeeping, keep up with other's blogs and comments, follow up on those who comment to me, etc.

I'm not feeling those bloggy "carnivals" (hee hee) either. The topics often don't grab me like some of the ones from real bloggers do, and I have the same antipathy towards blogging about something to promote someone else that I don't even know. If a blogger I knew was looking for some promo, I'd be happy. Whenever HBM calls out a topic, I'm generally happy to oblige (although I skipped this last one for lack of coherent brainpower these past couple of weeks), as they usually interest me and I know her. But those otehr ones? Feh.

I read your every post. There are about 4 blogs I still click through from bloglines to devour every word each day but I am afraid to comment to look like I am some kind of blog snob reading some places but not others.

Just finding my blogosphere reading list overwhelming. So overwhelming and I don't know how to find a balance. So I hide. Very mature, I know.

I have to say, I am not much of a commenter myself. I am occasionally moved to do so, but it's an infrequent thing. I know that makes me a bit of a slacker in the blogger community, but it's all I can do to keep up with the reading...

I love the Blogger links to home pages as well... makes visiting others so much easier.

And i also really enjoy watching the memes float around the blogs I read. The different responses are always fascinating to me.

And, well, I feel like I've been on a hiatus of sorts since the wee one, Baby Boo, entered the world. I only post once or twice a week, and visit randomly on the days in-between, trying to keep up with all my favorite bloggers.